"How are you, Allysa?"
Ally stilled upon hearing that same line from Noah again. She took a deep breath and smiled, this time for real. "I'm okay now, Noah."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I've seen those eyes and I've seen through your walls, but I wasn't able to be there for you. You were in hell and that day put you to something worse. I can't even imagine how tough it must've been for you after that day, and you had to face everything alone. All I could do was worry. I'm sorry, Allysa."
"I'm glad."
Noah's eyebrows slightly went up with Ally's first words after what he said. He didn't quite understand what she meant.
"I'm glad to know that you were also thinking of me after that day." Ally's smile grew wider. "It's good to know that I'm not the only one who felt something after that day because I thought that's weird. It was just a twelve-hour story, so I thought—"
"Those were twelve hours of everything I never did, and never felt before, Allysa," Noah confessed. "It was hell, and bloody, and everything wrong, but with all those things aside, I was in the right place."
"But not at the right time," Ally added, her eyes giving him a meaningful look.
Silence ensued between the two. It was like the conversation continued between their eyes who found solace in each other two years ago, inside St. Louie University.
"Were two years not enough?" Noah almost whispered.
Ally gave him a sad smile. "Two years were too much."
Noah blinked. Several times. He had to.
His shoulders slowly dropped as Ally's gaze drifted towards his back, and he saw in her eyes a sparkle that was more than he had seen two years ago.
"Was I too early? The graduation's not yet done?"
"No, it's okay."
Noah was not able to move from his position when a man his age passed by him, approached Ally, and kissed her on her forehead. His world stopped as he looked at the face of the same lady he was talking to just seconds ago, but now can be seen with overflowing joy.
"Noah, I'd like to introduce to you, my boyfriend, Erron."
"You must be the Noah Reyes I've been hearing about. I still can't process the story of everything you guys went through on that day, and I'm curious about what happened to each of you after that. How's life?"
"Good," Noah said. "I guess."
And that's when memories of that day vividly came back to him. Because that was all that remains to them.
*****
"Noah."
"Noah?"
"Noah!"
Noah flinched when he felt Hailey hitting his arm. He turned to her and was greeted by her frowning face.
"I told you to help me organize the line," she said.
"Oh, yeah."
"Hurry!"
"Coming!" Before following Hailey, Noah looked back at one of the kiosks in their department where a young lady was leaning on the table, sleeping. He had no idea why he found himself staring at her. He only looked away when he saw a young man sit in front of her.
"Noah!"
"Coming!"
Noah took one last glance at that kiosk and saw another young lady sitting next to the sleeping person, before running toward the line where Hailey is.
"Wow! I literally ran here, thinking I was late. Should've known I'll never beat the registrar at that."
From leaning on the table at the kiosk, Ally—slightly annoyed—looked up to see the person who smacked her on her back. She already has an idea of who it was, just based on the loud familiar voice. It was Ella, the only person in her college class whom she can call her friend.
"Do you also talk that loud at your job, Ella?"
Ally shifted her gaze to the chuckling guy who was sitting on the other side of the table, right in front of her. She recognized him as Terrence Hidalgo, their former class representative. She wondered how long he had been sitting there, not waking her up.
"What's wrong with my voice?" Ella asked him back, raising an eyebrow. "It's my own unique volume! Find yours."
Terrence just laughed again before turning to Ally. "I really can't believe that out of all the people in our section, the silent Allysa Santino would be friends with Ariella Perez."
"She had no choice," Ella said with her head held high.
Ally could only shake her head slowly. "Yeah, I had no choice."
The former class representative smiled at the answer he got. "Have you also gotten a job? Or are you still looking after the kids of the university's staff?"
"Are you nuts? We already graduated. Of course, Ally had also graduated from the Babysitter's Club," Ella responded, to which Terrence slightly frowned.
"Calm down. What has gotten your blood boiling this early in the morning?"
"Because we're scheduled to be here this early in the morning."
"Let me remind you that you came late," Terrence said in a flat tone. "Besides, didn't you miss St. Louie?"
"Good morning, Engineering Batch of 2020. Welcome back to St. Louie University."
"Good morning, Engineering Batch of 2020. Welcome back to St. Louie University."
"Good morning, Engineering Batch of 2020. Welcome back to St. Louie University."
"What's that?" With her eyebrows almost forming a line, Ella asked as soon as the voice from the campus speakers faded. "What was that for?"
"It repeats every 30 minutes," Ally simply answered, hearing the same greetings for the third time since she arrived at the university.
"What are they trying to prove?" Ella scoffed. "I don't need a warm welcome. I'm just here for my TOR and diploma."
"What I'm wondering is why we're scheduled on a different day. I mean, us, engineering graduates," Terrence asked, this time in a serious manner. "All other graduates, from the other courses, already got their documents last week. Even IT students who are in the same college as we are, they got theirs last week."
"Maybe, they can't accommodate everyone in just one week?" Ella shrugged. "And weren't they preparing for Ferdinand's welcome party last week?"
"Ferdinand?" Ally asked, almost in a whisper, genuinely confused as she had no idea who her friend was talking about.
Terrence chuckled again. "Dr. Ferdinand Chavez, the new University President."
"New University President?" Ally had to repeat, more confused. "What happened to Sir Lemuel Ponce?"
"Were you in the mountains when the quarantine started?" Even Ella was chuckling, amused at her friend's confusion. "Lemuel died two months ago."
"Covid?"
"I don't know. I just hear that he passed away. I don't know how he died."
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